'What Every American Should Know'

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‘What every American should know’ by Eric Liu is an essay that thoroughly examines the issue about cultural literacy. The essay begins with the author bringing us to the attention that the culture war is still going on in America despite people thinking that it ended a long time ago. He explains by saying the America that was defined as being white is being challenged and the people must now learn a new way to be American. They need to be aware of what they are and what their culture is. He refers to a volume published in 1987 by E.D Hirsch Jr called ‘Cultural Literacy’. The book talks about the need to have common vocabulary which needed to be taught in public schools and everywhere else. It had an appendix consisting of about 5000 names,…show more content…
Many of the things that were included in it remained strange to the people. He states that Americans do need a list that defines them, one that is borne out of the need to cultivate a shared cultural core through radical re-imagination that ends up being more inclusive and empowering. The list is necessary, but not like Hirsch’s and not made the way he made his. This new list need to be well thought out so that everything that is currently American is captured and none feels left out. In the process of making the list, people should understand that cultural literacy in culture confers power and at least access to power while illiteracy creates isolation from power. It is therefore important for all Americans to take this seriously. The major challenge for this drive would be making a common culture which is greater than the sum of increasingly diverse parts. To counter this, Americans need to make the core of this agenda more inclusive and relevant continuously for contemporary…show more content…
People immigrated to America from various continents, whether willingly or unwillingly, and the result was a big mash up of culture that they brought with them. Over time, America has taken segments of what came with the people both genetically and culturally and bought forth something new and unique that doesn’t exist anywhere else. This is the reason why America needs a new list, one that reflects the new America that is multi cultural. It should not only have just words, but also images, sounds, lingo of different classes of people, etc. This list should not be the work of just one person or a select few, everyone needs to be involved. It should at an accessible place where it can be altered with entries being added everyday and changes being made to it. According to the author, ‘It has to be an online, crowd-sourced, organic document that never stops changing, whose entries are added or pruned, elevated or demoted, according to the wisdom of the network.’ With this platform, people can contribute to the list, have discussions and be well on their way to making a new integrated American
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